Steve Mcqueen’s drama 12 Years A Slave looks set to be the toast of the director’s hometown after scoring a massive nine nominations for the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards. The picture is nominated for the coveted Film Of The Year title, while London-born McQueen is up for the Director of the Year award and the movie’s stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender and Lupita Nyong’o are all in the running for acting prizes. Other films in contention for the top title include Hollywood favourites Gravity, The Wolf Of Wall Street, Blue Jasmine and Inside Llewyn Davis, as well as sci-fi drama Her, Nebraska, Italian movie The Great Beauty, Frances Ha, and French film Blue Is The Warmest Color. Ejiofor faces stiff competition in the Actor Of The Year category, going up against Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf Of Wall Street), Michael Douglas (Behind The Candelabra), Bruce Dern (Nebraska), and Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips). Hanks is a double nominee after also picking up a nod in the Supporting Actor Of The Year competition for his other movie, Saving Mr. Banks, and he will face off with his Captain Phillips co-star Barkhad Abdi for the prize. The nominees in the other top movie category, British Film Of The Year, include Philomena, Rush, A Field In England, Filth, and The Selfish Giant. The London Critics’ Circle will bestow a special award on acting veteran Gary Oldman during the ceremony in London on 2 February. The Dark Knight star will receive the Dilys Powell Award For Excellence In Film.